2019 saw exponential progress in the mobile industry from robust AI-powered applications to IoT enabled smartphones and e-devices. 

As expected in 2020, digitalization matters, and especially in mobile apps, they come with much more innovative ideas that will become a true trend. Any company or brand that wishes to retain its customers and users through an app will need more than offering a purchase and sale service or a product catalog.

This 2020, mobile applications will provide a complete experience between the brand or company and the user. Without any traces of doubt, a challenge for the market and for entrepreneurs is witnessed when it comes to reinventing themselves.

Experts have cataloged this new era of applications as multi-experiences, where it will be necessary to directly and individually know the wishes and needs of users, without limiting it to a form or a series of established buttons and menus, for this the chat experiences and voice will be crucial in meeting these needs.

2020 Mobile App Development Trendsetters

#On-Demand Apps

On-demand apps are spreading like fire in the online marketplace, turning business into new maneuverings using on-demand economy reformations. Uber, Amazon, eBay set proven and profitable examples upfront.

Huge funding and investments made by overlords in this domain have witnessed exponential outcomes where Uber received an investment of $8.6 billion and Airbnb received funding of $2.4 billion in the year 2016.

In the year 2020 and beyond venture capitalists and other small and big businesses who overlooked the significance, scope, and scalability of the on-demand apps will launch more such types of mobile applications, considering a high inclination of customer behavior towards these.

On-Demand App Categories:

• Food delivery apps
• Taxi apps
• Grocery apps
• Freelancing/on-demand jobs apps
• Healthcare solutions app
• Laundry apps
• And many more

Popular On-Demand Apps:

• Ubereats
• Taxify
• Swiggy
• Instacart
• Postmates
• CAOCAO
• And many more

On-demand apps have made a great contribution to the ongoing trouble times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many corporations are relying on remote work where consumer apps( Ubereats, on-demand taxi apps, on-demand salon apps, etc) have served mankind, maintaining social and e-distancing.

This trend is now expected to be more common in remote working ecosystems.

[Prefer Reading: “X-Purpose Ready to Use Online Delivery Mobile App.”]

#Beacon Technology

Beacon technology made its advent long back and is no new to the market however the need in the mobile market is going to increase rapidly in 2020 and beyond. 

Market Value of Beacons Technology Occupied Globally, in 2016 & 2026 (in millions USD)

Source: statista

What are Beacons?

For those who don’t know, beacons are small sensors or wireless transmitters that work via Bluetooth and make use of the BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) technology to send signals to detected nearby smart devices.

The technology is primarily developed to leverage the progression of location technology and proximity marketing. Their working is simple as they connect and transfer data to other e-devices, encouraging location-based searching which further enhances the user interaction, delivering accurate results.

The technology is set to dominate the market as it’s a considerably low-cost alternative to technologies like Wi-Fi, NFC (Near Field Communication), and GPS (Global Positioning System). With low costs and low power consumption, it would be a preferred choice among consumers to make use of beacon-enabled devices which increases the productivity of their location-based marketing functions.

In the mobile app industry, apps bolstered by beacons can enable users to know where they can have their preferred products, costs, and other specifications. It is with the help of BLE, as soon as the mobile app will venture into the Beacon’s zone, it matches the signals and offers notifications and instructions to the users related to the services/products they show interest for.

In short, this technique keeps high potential in engaging with customers with a location-relevant experience and can be leveraged by mobile app development to take the user experience to the next level. 

Categories to Serve:

• Healthcare
• Retail
• Banking
• Aviation
• Food services
• Logistics
• Analytics
• Tourism
• And more

#APM & EMM

Application Performance Management (APM) and Enterprise Mobile Management (EMM) are the two requisites of mobile app development and are of utmost priority considered by the top mobile app development companies.

APM is a mobile metrics that enables smooth execution of mobile applications, eliminating all the possible issues and hurdles that became the reasons for hindrance of performance in apps.

Trouble-free mobile app execution is inevitable today to acquire enhanced user experience. No users would accept apps with slow speed, poor functionalities, and weak performance and would definitely switch their track to the available alternatives.

Enterprise Mobile Management (EMM) displays a different picture that focuses on strengthening the app’s security structure by enabling companies to deliver a safe and secure mobile app experience which further encourages mobile computing.

EMM Geared Components:

• App security
• App maintenance
• Finance management

Certainly, looking at the versatility of APM and EMM, which are the crucial aspects of enterprise mobile app development, companies would not miss integrating these extraordinary features in their business apps to provide more uniformity and flexibility to the end-users.

# AI-ML and IoT will Continue to Rule & Perform

We are well known to the contributions made by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the ease of living provided by the Internet of Things (IoT) which have transformed the world into something never imagined.

Advances in the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence (AI) has led people to control electronic devices through mobile apps much more frequently. The combination of both technological elements allows experiences to be much closer between users and companies or brands.

The trend for mobile apps to become essential tools for this 2020 is precise because each year unusual developments are made in the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence combined. These two elements will depend on people enjoying better experiences in augmented realities and faster and more precise connectivities.

Undoubtedly, the progressions represented by the Internet of Things will have the greatest advantage of being able to control different devices through the same smartphone, by 2020 this trend will be more noticeable in home automation as well as in different public spaces, including in the medical sector through the implementation of virtual assistants.

AI app development has also dug its heels in the mobile app development and will not merely be restricted to Siri and Chatbots. AI and machine learning will deliver promising user experience by venturing deeper into the app development world with its high capabilities and precision of capturing real-time events.

Mobile app building with AI and ML would be revamped as mobile devices would be made to learn how to utilize and act upon data, identify issues, and troubleshoot them in real-time, encircled in real-time scenarios.

AI/Ml and IoT Contributions to Look For:

• AIOps for automated AI functions
• Adaptive battery for prolonged lifespan
• AI-enabled face unlock
• Language/Voice translations
• High app reliability for cybersecurity
• Smart cameras with subject identification

The goal of cognitive technologies for 2020 is to be able to accelerate operations that previously took much more investment of resources, both human and economic, in this way it will seek to reduce costs and in parallel to be able to promote important aspects such as cybersecurity, a necessary requirement to make the user experience much more satisfying.

# 5G Technology

5G technology will not only be one of the main trends in the development of mobile applications but also, according to Statista, it will have a great impact in 2020 and in the coming years in the vast majority of industries.

Its speed, which is claimed to be 100 times faster than the 4G network, will take a turn in many sectors, such as multiplayer video games.

Although speed has been the main topic of conversation around 5G, low latency is what excites gamers and developers alike, since the main demand in this type of online video games is that they require better wireless connections than the current ones.

5G is still in its infancy, but telecoms companies are struggling to expand coverage by 2020, and video games are likely to be the first validation test on the market, as the most downloaded are precisely those who are eagerly demanding this kind of technology.

# Increased Adoption of Blockchain Technology

Today, Blockchain has been explored and defined outside the realm of cryptocurrencies and has been implemented across various industry domains with successful and practical use-cases.

We were limited to cryptocurrencies and smart contracts till 2018; nevertheless, this modern era has focussed upon DApps and hyper ledger systems which have shown the exceptional scope of advancements and scalability in the mobile industry, empowering Blockchain.

The utilization of decentralized concepts will be involved in multiple mobile apps in the era which can perform much better when compared with the present ones. The technology has a lot more to offer and is a powerful asset to embrace in mobile development projects to open the gates for more business opportunities.

Blockchain’s Identifiable Traits:

• Security
• Transparency
• Swiftness
• Deployment
• Readiness
• Proficiency
• Deliverability
• Efficiency
• Robustness

Blockchain’s Unlocked Potential:

• BaaS (Blockchain-as-a-Service)
• Tokenization
• Crypto space and gaming
• And more

Mobile app integration with the powerful technology of blockchain will be a prominent trend to be seen in 2020 and the years ahead. Many companies have already started to build video conferencing apps utilizing the blockchain to its full advantage.

[Prefer Reading: “How to Use Blockchain in Developing Video Conferencing Apps like Zoom or Google Duo?”]

# AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)

It’s an initiative made to increase the speed of the web on mobile and other e-devices. The concept is to enhance the mobile web pages’ speed with the minimum load time using customized and well-optimized HTML codes.

This gives developers an upper edge to build heavy web pages and websites embedded with accelerated performance, and load speed, and reduced bounce rate, supported across all platforms and mobile devices. AMP integration with apps is easy and seamless.

AMP Benefits to Encounter:

• Amplified user retention
• Scaled user-experience
• Better conversion rates
• Lowered bounce rates
• Declined loading time

This is another main aspect that will define the latest trends in mobile app development in 2020 and beyond where mobile app developers will engage more with AMP to offer an exceptional experience to the end-users.

[Prefer Reading: “Top Cross-Platform Mobile Frameworks’ Comparison: React Native vs Xamarin vs Flutter.”]

# Mobile Wallets

Online Banking and eCommerce lead a wave in the phenomenon of online payments and brought the game-changers in line: the Mobile Wallets.

Mobile Payment solution app development is on the rise and with the overlords bringing Google Wallet, Apple Pay services easy on access, business owners are inclining their shift towards mCommerce.

The trends are ever-changing: Cash was put back by plastic money and now plastic money is being replaced by e-money. 

Mobile wallets are seen as an effective online mode to execute frictionless payments and have been openly accepted by the audience with full zeal. The idea of integrating a payment gateway into an app is an exceptional idea which is further being taken to a much secure level with the authentication provided by the Blockchain technology.

Big mobile brands(say Apple, Samsung, Google) are working on leveraging the power of technology and are finding ways to improve scan and pay strategies and peer-to-peer money pay systems to offer more flexibility in online payment.

Contactless payment is the next mobile trend that will be happily welcomed by people looking at the concerning situations of today.

# Cloud-Based Apps

We are not unfamiliar with the infinite scope of the Cloud technology and the enormous perks and initiatives it brings along. Cloud, providing the hosting services, is a boon for businesses to store and access their data nimbly, securely, and seamlessly over encrypted channels.

It’s rightly said, Everything is in the Cloud!

Cloud technology is surely the necessary substance in mobile development which has aided to solve many noticeable security grievances and concerns making mobile apps more fast, accessible, and reliable.

2020 will produce many cloud-integrated mobile applications, requiring minimal storage space and keeping maximum room for performance and high-end security. The benefits don’t arrive only for the users but app programmers as well bringing flexibility in data integration with the least possibilities of downtime or crashing.

Dropbox, AWS, SlideRocket, OneDrive, GoogleDrive are a few app examples that run directly on Cloud. These are only a few; however, the count is going to rise with proceeding years where multiple cloud-based powerful applications will enter the mobile world, syncing data simply with a few mobile clicks.

# Voice Apps to Shine More

2020 will be the year of Voice User Interfaces (known by its initials as VUI) as it is projected that at least half of all searches will be done using the user’s voice on their mobile devices will be done using voice. The most notorious cases are Google Home, Alexa, or Siri that have gained a force never seen before among users.

The projection for 2020 is to be able to develop this functionality in applications that do not yet have it in order to perfect this feature that is increasingly useful for users since it allows us to rule out the action of writing that previously kept our hands occupied for longer. Voice will be the most useful tool in 2020.

Final Consideration

With increasingly widespread use, mobile applications will continue to feed on all technological advances to be increasingly satisfying to the demands of users.

The users mark, to a large extent, the trends at the click of a mouse, alerting companies and brands about our tastes and preferences when consuming technologies. For their part, the latter, at an accelerated rate, are creating new consumption habits for us. As app developers, we dedicate ourselves to listening to both channels so as not to lose sight of any detail.

Is your next project based on developing a business mobile app? 

Start at the beginning, be sure to talk to professionals who can help you analyze your needs, niche markets and who know how to integrate the latest trends in mobile applications to get the best out of your product.